Dramatized history of the Coca-Cola company and some of the people who participated in its origin and growth. Made in the style of a feature film.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Sponsor: Coca-Cola
Audio/Visual: sound, b&w

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: The_Emperor_Of_Television - - December 13, 2012
Subject: A pleasant surprise
Not as offensive as I was expecting. Naive, but I've seen worse. I was expecting it to become obnoxious WW2 propaganda, but it never quite became that despite several references.

Plus, it's about Coca-Cola. That's always a plus.

Reviewer: KAPP - - March 2, 2011
Subject: Not Propaganda but Cheerleading.
You can spot the academic neo-socialists who comment here a mile away. The ones who obviously have never held a real job in their lives, nor do they understand what it means to get your employees behind your most important asset; the product.

This film was obviously aimed at the people in the Coca-Cola organization who had the greatest impact to the customer; the distibutor who was directly engaged with the public.

To the customer, this man represented the company that they were spending their nickels with. To the retailer, he represented a partnership that they had with someone who was not just selling soft drinks, but selling a product that was directly responsible for pulling people into his store, where they would then buy OTHER products as well. Coca-Cola wasn't just a singular product, it was an entire marketing program designed to increase sales across the board for small retailers.

Coke did this by reminding people that their cola had become a part of the American landscape. And so this film is much like Forrest Gump via 1941. It re-traces the prior 40+ years of American history, using Coca-Cola as the common thread that went through all of these experiences as well, just as Gump did.

Just as Forrest came to the conclusion that life goes on, and what seems like a crisis today will always lead to better times tomorrow, "Always Tomorrow" had already established that theme over 50 years before.

This film was a motivational tool for Coke's front-line employees to have a deeper understanding of what their jobs meant and what an important role their product played throughout some of the toughest moments in American history.

There's nothing wrong with that people; Perhaps you should get off-campus sometime and go see how real people live.

Reviewer: 1110babe - - November 9, 2010
Subject: update on a review
The innovative distribution and selling system in this film is being combined with distributing medicine in Africa. While Coke doesn't want to get into the medicine business and prefers to share its distribution and sales information so people can use it themselves, they aren't stopping it, either. Personally, I think anyone in business would be a fool not to take the advice in this film and that Coke is offering free to Africa.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11711409

Reviewer: johhnyblade49 - - October 28, 2007
Subject: Why So Political?
Regardless of either you do, or don't like this film, You have to take it for what it is. And simply put, I think it is a really cool old film that depicts life in a simpler time, when it was still OK to leave little Susie out on a bench in front of the store. Why does everyone have to dog this film when it contains such a positive message...
The story I see is that of a single man, who like so many others, found an exciting new product, and knew how popular it was going to be, and thus made appropriate moves to be on top of the market when it HAD gone big.
They say it takes money to make money, and this film is a classic example of that. The film does make mention to one year (1907), and Jim was already up there enough to be at the Atlanta convention. If there had really been a Jim Westlake bottling coke since before 1907, then by 1950 something, he would have died a rich & happy man

Reviewer: SirJekyllAppliance - - October 25, 2007
Subject: Pure and wholesome???
Misrepresented, perhaps, by the description of this film as a history. It only takes off at the American depression. No mention that the product was an early 'stimulant' drink mixing the Cola nut with Cocaine, sugar and flavourings before carbonation. Google up some early advertising!

Reviewer: B&W - - March 20, 2007
Subject: always and forever
beyond being the american dream, i found it interesting on how it was trying to make the veiwer feel sentimental about the war and youth. but it was one cheesy long commercial. it didn't really go into how the company got started either.

Reviewer: LePiocheur - - May 10, 2006
Subject: (brain) washing machine
this look like a contest to say as much time C###C###
in a single phrase
One of the worst moment is when this awfully fatty little kid say three times "i want a bottle of cc"
An the mother finally say yes, because "it's so cool!"
damn! they surely all must have hole in their stomach! maybe some place else too!

Reviewer: Dr Hilary Rhodes - - September 10, 2005
Subject: Good teaching material
This is an excellent historical advermentary which exactly delineates the prevalent corporate attitude during the latter years of WWII. The 'Self Made Man', always larger than life, seems a caricature now, but in my memory, there were many who acted the bottling CEO. All the propaganda is paraded in such an innocent fashion, and with almost religious fervour.

On face value, this film is ironically simplistic, extolling the virtues of Coca-cola, and almost makes it a religious sacrement as the terms 'pure and wholesome' keep on cropping up in the script. I was waiting for a scene where Coke would have been substituted for wine during the mass.

Interesting as well was the reference to womens 'rights'. Larry, the conservative foil, asks the newly hired secretary why she should be seeking work, rather than be gainfully employed in the home, and then coming to the conclusion that she is too attractive - i.e. a distraction in the all male office.

There are anti-union/labour law references as well. Exended hours of working time, the discomfort shown when the bank holiday is announced, and the depression is just glossed over.

The film's historicity is in its actual form and implicit values of those time. It is also valuable in showing the gradual encroachment of corporate culture into every facet of society, which of course, is world dominating now. The difference being that it was then a matter of pride to have as many employees as possible - a sign of power. Now it seems de riguer to meet the 'bottom line' by sacking workers, and the good folks who spend their dimes on products now often get short shrift as far as quality is concerned - shareholders are much more important.

Who would have watched this film - was it a feature? My answer to this (having grown up during the 50s, when we would often go to the 'fleapit' on Saturday afternoons, is that it would have been screened as the first of a double bill, as they often had in those days, and would have replaced some of the still adverts, and replaced the cartoons before the main feature.

The historical footage showing the old coolers, trucks and Coke paraphanalia is also worthwhile looking, albeit cleaned up.

Reviewer: AlanMediaMan - - July 25, 2005
Subject: Pure Gold
To continue with the food theme - and leaving aside the issue of whether sugar is truly the embodiment of all that is evil - what we have here is a prime slab of 1940s ham. It is superbly awful!

The Jam Handy folks must have thought they had died and gone to heaven when Coca-Cola handed them a budget that allowed them to go make a film with the production values of a Hollywood movie.

The script and its delivery say so much about the corporate and national values of the day. Not a trace of doubt that packing as many bottles (pre-cans here) as possible of Coca-Cola into every retail crevice on the planet just has to be the right thing to do. No doubts about cultural imperialism, health issues, tooth rot or anything except making that cola flow in rivers. How strange to live in a world where everyone is so *certain* of everything!

If you like lashings of period detail in everything from how sales people worked in the 1940s, what the stores (shops) looked like, cars and so on and on, this is the movie for you. It looks great (superb image quality and great MPEG2 transfer guys), and it holds the interest - if only because it's fascinating to remind ourselves that once there actually were people who were so damn sure about the *rightness* of their job.

A gem: download it.

Reviewer: Bill T. - - May 8, 2005
Subject: (does not star The Littlest Hobo)
Whew. This hourlong tribute to a Coca Cola bottler is first of all, yes, far too long for it's own good, and oddly, told backwards for curious effect. I am not 100% sure if this was all such a good idea, but it adds some uniqueness I guess. Love how the bottlers of Coke (er Coca-Cola, gotta say the full name) just glossed over the Depression. Heck, it looks to me like the people in this film are'nt suffering one bit. It looks like they're rather too overly dressed for the time period. Speaking of time periods, I'm really actually not 100% sure the film wasn't jumping all over the place from one time frame to the next. Now that I've got you totally confused, feel free to see this movie lol

Reviewer: wsh5916b - - March 15, 2005
Subject: Historically Interesting
This is a "rally and inspire the troops" film, produced by Jam Handy, well known for its industrial titles.

The story is told through the eyes of a local Coca-Cola bottler, and details the trials, tribulations, and sales tactics taken to grow the business and maximize profits.

Fascinating from a historical standpoint, we get a glimpse of period Coca-Cola delivery trucks, bottling equipment, etc..

A bit of a turn-off to someone like myself, who has a disdain for the sales profession in general, are the tips/tricks that are dramatized in an attempt to persuade someone to buy something that the individual does not necessarily want (like an extra case of Coke to sell after Labor Day, which was apparently not a popular notion in the early days of Coke). Ever want to smack a salesperson in the face and say, "Aw, shaddup!"? That's precisely what I wanted to do when watching portions of this film.

Regardless, it's a fascinating, if somewhat contrived, hour of viewing, a film that was obviously never meant to be seen by anyone other than a Coca-Cola employee.

Reviewer: Christine Hennig - - July 21, 2004
Subject: All Hail the Hobble-Skirt Bottle!
Coca-Cola bottler Jim Westlake reacts to World War II by going on a long, extended reminiscence, where he tells us all about the troubles he had to deal with in the past, which he solved with good olÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ American pluck, know-how, and faith in Coca-Cola, amen! This is a campy and interesting portrait of the corporate culture of Coca-Cola in the 40s, as well as the more general attitudes of big business at the time. Campiest is probably JimÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs second banana Larry, who whines like Droopy about trifles like war, depressions, sugar shortages, and how they are going to pay their bills. Jim himself is obviously too important to dirty his hands with that stuffÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂheÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs too busy thinking about The Future and how it involves selling more and more Coca-Cola so that the business can grow and grow and grow without end. Absolutely no downside is shown for this unending growth. The film goes on and on about this, grinding its messages of future-thinking and faith in the all-powerful-and-good sugary brown beverage into the ground until you want to scream. Some may find this tedious, but for my money this makes the film a must-see as the ultimate example of corporate religion spouted in an industrial film. Settle down, grab an ice-cold Coke, and watch the show, folks. Soon, at least according to the Onion, itÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂll be mandatory!
Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.

Reviewer: PCinoPunk - - July 13, 2004
Subject: I want a Mountain Dew
What would of made this movie much more engaging is Joan Crawford (once head of Pepsi) walk in and clobber this putz at the beginning of the movie and take over Coca-Cola!! or maybe a short history film thrown in about Hershey USA, or an in depth pictorial on Slinky Toys? I give this movie (**)- stars because of funny hairdoÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs :)

Reviewer: cashel - - June 26, 2004
Subject: a stupid film
I consider it to be a dreadful drink with its 12 teaspoonsful of sugar in every can. This film displays the same qualities. With its weird story, inept acting,it was a complete failure and almost immediately withdrawn from public viewing. The only items of any interest are a few minutes of historical re-enactments which are not the real thing. .